I, for one, welcome our new robot waiter overlords

January 1, 2025 9:19 PM

52 things i learned in 2024 by Tom Whitwell (SLMedium)
posted by Gorgik (6 comments total)

#24 If you drop a normal hair dryer into a fish tank full of tap water, it will carry on working, gently warming up the water. (NB Please do not try this.) [JD Stillwater]

this is a lovely essay about conventional ignorance, curiosity and experiment. also, "A fish tank full of tap water" would make an excellent username.

as usual, a fun collection of things from Whitwell, thanks for posting
posted by chavenet at 2:19 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

#27 was the basis for an FPP I made back in October. You heard it here first Mefites!
posted by biffa at 5:07 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

#27 was the basis for an FPP I made back in October. You heard it here first Mefites!

Going through the list I was like "this would make at least 40 metafilter FPP's"...
posted by DreamerFi at 6:26 AM on January 2

This pairs nicely with the orifices fpp
posted by gottabefunky at 8:34 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

I also love how some of these topics are really just the portals into what must be a massive, argumentative thread somewhere - probably with a few injured testers. The hairdryer in the fishtank is a great example (with somebody experimenting on youtube here) - as is the more powerful showers being more efficient than weak ones.
posted by rongorongo at 8:45 AM on January 2

(Mike demonstrates "hairdryer in a bathtub" even more dramatically - ruining a thousand movie-plot character deaths)
posted by rongorongo at 8:55 AM on January 2